Heart blood transfusions, last resort

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Blood transfusions for hospitalized cardiac patients should be a last resort because they double the risk of infection, U.S. researchers found.

The study, published in BMC Medicine, found the risk of death following cardiac blood transfusions increased four-fold.

The analysis of 30-day outcomes for nearly 25,000 Medicare coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients from 2003-2006 in 40 Michigan hospitals found transfusion practices vary substantially among hospitals.

Study co-author Dr. Neil Blumberg of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York said the finding suggests a number of doctors may be doing what they were trained to do -- avoiding anemia and helping oxygen delivery -- rather than what has been clinically proven to be necessary.

"Blood transfusions are certainly necessary in life-threatening situations," Blumberg says in a statement. "But this study and other studies confirm they should be a last resort, not a first resort, as they often are."

Blumberg suggests when a transfusion is necessary the chances of infection and inflammation may be lowered through leukoreduction -- removing the donor's white blood cells from the blood.